Sunday, June 19, 2011

The city's largest furniture store

If you are in the market to furnish a home or apartment in Quito, you could go to one of the city's many lavish malls, which are full of brand-name stores helping you outfit your house at brand-name prices.

But if you are interested in doing that at a fraction of the cost, you should go to the 24 de Mayo Market — up the hill from the city's colonial center. If you don't have an arm or a leg to spare, this place is for you.

It might lack the mall scent that invites you to continue perusing until you find the item you are looking for. The 24 de Mayo market smells more like urine - an odor that really makes you think "I'm paying way too much for this."

But that is the price you pay for not paying too much.



Working your way through the market is a game of cat and mouse.

You walk up to one of the stores. The woman asks you what you are interested in, and you tell her. Then she gives you a price.

You mull it over, scratch your beard for a few seconds, and let the silence linger in the air. Then you respond with a counter offer, which the woman promptly rejects being way too low.

So you begin to walk away. At this point, the woman will give a counter offer that isn't what you are willing to pay but is headed in the right direction. So you stick around. At this point, you could repeat your original counter offer if you believe it to be a fair price or you could begin to compromise.

The back and forth continues until you decide upon a price, unless of course you are interested in buying a few items. In this case you leave the original bargain hanging at a price that you are pretty comfortable paying and mention that you might be in the market for another item.

The dance begins again and continues until you are satisfied.


Bargaining is not something that comes naturally to Ecuadorians - or at least that I have witnessed.

I'm not exactly sure why.

Maybe there is a whole social status attached to buying products, the sense that if you don't pay a lot for something then it's not very good. My roommate thinks that they lack the business savvy that says you won't pay more for something than you have to.

This reminds me of one of my favorite stories I have heard from my Peace Corps friends: The Story of the $76 Papaya.

There was a fair at my friend's site and a competition to see which farmer could grow the biggest papaya. Someone from my friend's community won with a gorgeous, organic papaya that weighed 14 pounds (Apparently, that is not a great weight for a championship papaya, but some of the heavy hitters didn't enter the competition for whatever reason.).

So the guy wins the competition and takes home the $75 prize. Then his wife turns around and sells the papaya for $1, which was well below the going market rate for a papaya of that size.

Either way, the lack of business savvy was something that initially surprised me when I got to Ecuador, but I have gotten used to it.


If you are interested in negotiating at the 24 de Mayo Market, a little practice in the art of negotiation can take you a long way.



We pretty much outfitted our entire apartment at this market (beds, mattresses, tables, chairs, couches, etc) and saved several hundred dollars in the process.


The first time we purchased stuff for the apartment at this market, we bought three beds, three mattresses, three small tables, a dinner table, five chairs, and two benches.

One would think that transporting these items from the market to our apartment on the other side of town might be difficult. But the pick-up truck drivers near the market are experts in packing things into and onto the bed of the truck.

With one long piece of rope, he was able to fit all of those purchases into the truck. When it looked like his architectural masterpiece might be a bit unstable, we asked him if he wanted to put something in the cab of the truck for transport. He says, "no, there is always space."

We made it back to the apartment with four people in the cab and all that stuff in the bed.

So when someone suggests that there isn't space to hole anything else, you just tell them that there is always more space.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Water Museum?

This weekend, I visited Quito's Yaku Water Museum with my roommate and her sister.



Why would Quito, of all places, have a water museum?

More than 75 percent of the Earth is covered in water. Ninety-seven percent of that water is saltwater. Two percent of the water is locked up in ice caps. That means that one percent of all water on Earth is usable by humans. A miniscule amount of that one percent is found in the area around Quito.

So what's the deal with the water museum?

In the next few years, the Andes could be the site of a water crisis. Quito relies on the surrounding snow-capped volcanoes for water. But as these snow-capped volcanoes become less and less snow-capped as a result of climate change, there could be severe water shortages.

Quito decided that it needed to protect and conserve its watershed. Part of this process was an education campaign that explained the water cycle, the importance of conserving water, and how to do so.

This is where the museum comes in. Located on a western slope of the valley overlooking the Old Town, the city built the interactive Yaku Water Museum the educates residents about water. It's not a typical tourist destination.

The museum receives student groups during the week and is open to the general public on weekends (by the way: the last Saturday of every month is free). The museum is geared toward children.

It starts by explaining the process by which water arrives at our homes: starting on the mountains and streams before being collected in reservoirs and undergoing a purification at the water treatment facility before delivery to individual users.



As I mentioned before, it is a very interactive museum. The exhibit talked about the ways in which we use water. Here I am showing the rest of the tour group the proper way to wash clothes on a rock.



Then, visitors talk with the interactive guides about how they can conserve water.

The second half of the museum tour is full of experiments that the kids can do to learn about the various properties of water. There is even a room where you can play with bubbles.

After completing the tour, visitors can enjoy the views overlooking the valley Quito is in.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

More than grocery shopping

Sunday morning, I was walking from my apartment to the local market to buy my produce for the week. I had gone for a long run earlier in the morning and hadn't showered or changed my clothes yet. I went to the market in a soccer jersey, running shorts, and sandals. My roommate also went to the market in her running clothes.

On the way to the market, we bumped into a friend.

Friend: Where are you going?
Ian: To the market.
Friend: Dressed like that? You look like you should be exercising, not going to the market.


Apparently, you don't just go to the market in Quito wearing whatever clothes you have on. This is because you aren't just going to the market to buy groceries. You are going to the market to be seen.

And if someone saw you in running shorts and soccer jersey at the market, that will not bode well for your reputation.

Luckily, I'm not that interested in people in town thinking "Man, that guy has really nice clothes. He must also have a lot of money that we want to rob." I'd rather people be thinking "Man, that guy's soccer jersey only cost him $3 and those shorts only cost him $2. I'll just let him do his shopping in peace."

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Life in the city

I returned to Ecuador about two weeks ago after spending a month and a half at home. I had a great time at home, celebrating holidays and special occasions with my family and spending time with friends. As nice as it was to be home for such a long time, I was ready to get back to work.

I have been adjusting to my new job in Ecuador.

To give you a brief update of my timeline: In February, I left my site in the south of the country to assist in training the new group of volunteers. I lived about a forty minutes outside of Quito at the Peace Corps Training Center. In the middle of April, I started my vacation and returned at the end of May.

I am now living in the capital city of Quito, working as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader out of the PC Office. I live with two other PCVLs in the north side of Quito. I will be here until next May. Then, who knows?

In the meantime, I will be providing support to the volunteers in the field and helping out in the office. I will also be spending part of my time working with an NGO (I will tell you more about this when I know more about this).

I look forward to the opportunities this gig will provide. Not only is there potential for professional development, but there will also be plenty of blog content. The combination of adventures in the big city, life with my roommates, the possibility of getting out in the field, and the unexpected ridiculousness of Ecuadorian society will make this a great year for the blog.